49% of Success Rides on Creative: Here’s How to Own It Before Your Competitors Do

The second half of 2025 is shaping up to be a turning point for creative. Costs are up, AI is everywhere, and fatigue is setting in faster than ever. The rules of engagement are changing and the only lever left that consistently drives growth is creative.

According to Nielsen, creative accounts for a staggering 49% of ad performance. That’s more than targeting (9%) and deliverability/viewability (22%) combined. In other words, if you’re not winning on creative, you’re not winning at all.

That’s why Singular brought together a powerhouse panel of creative leaders to unpack what’s working, what’s breaking, and what comes next. What followed was a fast-paced conversation full of practical takeaways that marketers can put to work today.

Meet the Panel:

• Philip Levin, Creative Director, CRAFTSMAN+
• Brett Hastie, Associate Director of Performance & Creative, Tinuiti
• Deanna Ulrich, Senior Manager of Creative Performance, Liftoff
• Armine Marukyan, User Acquisition Manager, SplitMetrics
• Safia Dawood, Growth Data Science, Moloco
• Lisi Gardiner, Product Director, Singular
• Dina Kirshner, Global Product Marketing, TikTok Symphony Creative Studio

1. Creative Must Be Platform-Native

Philip Levin, Creative Director, CRAFTSMAN+

The era of “one size fits all” creative is over. Native, thumb-stopping design is what gets remembered and shared. Whether it’s TikTok, Instagram Reels, rewarded videos, or playable ads, each platform comes with its own expectations and rhythms. Leaning into those cultural cues is how brands avoid feeling out of place.

The best creative doesn’t just fit into a platform, it belongs there.

2. Adapt Creatives Around User Motivations

Philip Levin, Creative Director, CRAFTSMAN+

Users don’t all download apps or buy products for the same reasons. Some want convenience, some want savings, some want status. For gaming in particular, motivations get even more nuanced. Research from Meta’s Big Catch Playbook shows that players are drawn to games for reasons as diverse as:

• Self-expression: Customizing avatars, designing worlds, or “making it your own.”
• Progression: Building, leveling up, or improving over time.
• Discovery: Unlocking new maps, hidden items, or storylines.
• Escapism: Entering a fantasy world or relieving stress.
• Social connection: Playing with or against friends, joining clans, bonding with communities.
• Expertise: Mastering puzzles, challenges, or precision-based tasks.
• Power: Experiencing victory, domination, or roles unavailable in real life.
• Relaxation: Passing time, unwinding, or engaging in calming play.

When brands align creative with these motivations, they can unlock downloads and deeper engagement. A “progression” ad might emphasize building a city from scratch. A “power” ad might highlight winning battles or conquering territories. A “relaxation” ad could lean into soothing puzzle mechanics.

Once motivations are clear, the right formats fall into place: videos for storytelling, statics for quick hits, playables for try-before-you-buy moments. Most importantly, every ad should land on one simple, sticky message.

As CRAFTSMAN+ Creative Director Philip Levin noted, “I like to think of it like a song where you might not remember all the lyrics, but you’ll remember the chorus or just a couple of words here and there. That’s the part that sticks, and that’s what ads need to do to capture conversions.” 

Ads that work are the ones that play like an earworm: simple, repeatable, and impossible to forget, whether you’re appealing to convenience, savings, or the thrill of progression and power inside a game.

3. UGC Only Works if It Feels Real

Philip Levin, Creative Director, CRAFTSMAN+

Authenticity beats polish. Levin advised briefing UGC creators with concept lists, not scripts. That leaves room for genuine reactions, especially in “first-time trying” formats where creators discover the product on camera.

A few best practices:

• Outline, don’t script. Prompts lead to authenticity; scripts lead to stiffness.
• First-time use concepts. Capture raw reactions to create believable excitement.
• Small but critical details. Even pronunciation guides can make or break brand perception.

Pair that authenticity with smart editing — adding app footage, picture-in-picture, or overlays — and you’ll have UGC that resonates without losing performance rigor.

4. Measurement Has to Catch Up to Creativity

Lisi Gardnier, Product Director, Singular

The panel agreed that while it’s easier than ever to launch new creatives, understanding why a creative works is still the hardest part.

The solution, Lisi Gardiner, Product Director at Singular argued, comes down to tagging. Without structured tagging, there’s no way to connect creative elements (format, audience, messaging, language, value prop) back to performance outcomes. And while tagging has long been a manual, tedious process, advances in AI-powered tagging are making it scalable by automatically labeling assets with attributes and combining that with attribution, funnel, and cost data.

This creates a new kind of creative intelligence: not just knowing which video won, but knowing why. Was it the call-to-action? The use of UGC? The localization? With AI tagging, marketers can build reports that surface patterns across markets and campaigns, turning raw creative volume into actionable insights.

5. Beat Creative Fatigue With Iteration (and Inspiration)

Armine Marukyan, UA Manager, Splitmetrics

Creative fatigue hits faster than ever, often within a week for high-scale campaigns. That makes proactive refresh strategies essential.

Armine Marukyan, UA Manager at Splitmetrics highlighted the operational side of combatting creative fatigue: to schedule refreshes before performance slips, keep an always-on testing pipeline, and monitor early signals like CTR, CPC, and CPM to spot decline before it hits ROAS.

But process alone isn’t enough. Levin urged marketers to pair iteration with inspiration:

• Refresh messaging early. Don’t wait until fatigue shows up in the data.
• Look outside your vertical for ideas, borrowing from creators in unexpected categories.
• Zig when others zag. In a feed full of sameness, contrast is what earns attention.

The best teams are building refresh calendars; swapping in small iterations weekly and larger swings monthly. They’re also tracking early signals (CTR dips, CPC rises) to predict fatigue before it hurts ROAS. The lesson: don’t fall in love with a winner. Even the best-performing ad will burn out, and the brands that win are the ones ready with replacements before performance erodes.

Final Whistle: Creative Is the Growth Lever

The panel made it clear: creative isn’t the side dish, it’s the main course. From platform-native design to UGC authenticity and proactive refreshes, the marketers who win in 2025 will be the ones who treat creative as their biggest growth lever.

👉 Thank you to Singular for hosting the conversation. Watch the full webinar here.

If you’re ready to optimize your creative strategy — from playables to production at scale — work with CRAFTSMAN+ to turn attention into outcomes.